Ask her if she would like a cookie or ice cream – points to her eyes for eyes-cream, of course

Can now locate Mommy’s lipgloss and properly apply it to her lips (and some of her face)

TwinXY: shosh (socks), schsz (shoes), schsz (cheese), bye-bye

Loves to help Mommy carry “heavy” things

Loves to push the stroller – which is taller than he is!

Milestones:

April 7, 2011 – TwinXX used the potty for the first time!!! Though it was #1, we learned that everything that comes out is “poo-poo”. TwinXY had a fun time sitting, though I don’t think he knows what he is supposed to be doing.

May 2011

May introduced many, many new words. Mostly animals and animal noises, thanks to an animal magnet set from AuntiJ. The Plinkas can correctly identify all 20 animals, and make most of their sounds. Admittedly, you need to be “in the know” for some of them for proper identification because (since I didn’t know some o them myself) I made some of the noises up. What does a giraffe really sound like???

June 2011

The East Side Plinkas turn two. TwinXY has no interest in the toilet. TwinXX is successfully potty trained, but promptly falls off the wagon when she realizes that her partner in crime can’t be bothered to try. TwinXY loves numbers. His favorite cartoon is Number Jacks and he screams “Jacks!” He plays his number puzzle and knows them by shape, but the actual number name is a compete disconnect. He randomly shouts, one! eight! ten!. On the upside – he isn’t getting them confused with letters, so that distinction is set.

More words – almost too many to list singly. The cutest by far is TwinXY’s umbrella – boolala. Awwww.

July 2011

July is the month of sentence formation. We are now stringing two and three words together and making a lot more sense. I am pretty confident they know more than I realize they do because half their words are in Swedish, which all sounds like babble to me – even when Captain does it.

TwinXX is dancing, singing, mimicking emotions and showing empathy, acting (see “I’m sad…” video on FB), and is finally playing with babies. She has a little bear, actually it is TwinXY’s bear, that dances, eats, and must be seated at the table for meals. She also has a penguin that is constantly in time-out for jumping. Though she actually knows some of her letters and numbers, she has the attention span of a goldfish with intellectual pursuits. Give her a music or dance video – she is captivated for half an hour. Her new favorite song is the raindrops/ah ah ah song and she loves to hold the notes with outstretched arms. She is a born entertainer. She knows all the members of our family: Mama, Papa/DaDa, and Yee-yuh.

TwinXY now knows his entire alphabet by sight and sound, though the actual letter names are still coming and there is no order. He works his letter and number puzzles almost obsessively, and corrects sister when she gets it wrong, pointing to the correct spot, saying, “This one”. I hope he is brilliant. Such a boy, though, he sang his first self-composed song: “Beis, beis, beis, beis, beis…etc”. Beis is poopoo in Swedish. He has also learned most of his colors: bloooooo, loooolow, ranj, reen, ed, po-po, back, and what. He knows all the members of our family: Mama, Papa/DaDa, and Hers.

Both twins are now “reading” books with me – in that they are copying the lilt and syllable counts of their favorites, though no real words happen. They are so excited to be doing what they think is reading. They will also read to one another, which is cute because the listener has to sit on the readers lap. I can’t seem to catch this on still or video. Darn.

My, how time flies. But in my defense, we have been busy. In August, the sight words really started to kick in and I put an amazing video of TwinXY doing flash cards on FB. In September, XY over-zealously gave me a leaping kiss that broke my nose and deviated my septum. Thanks, dude. We went to Thailand in October for our first real family vacation, and the Plinkas absolutely loved the Ah-ahs (monkeys) Show that we went to see. Oddly, at they time they were rather unimpressed, but for days after, it was all they asked to do. They ate everything – especially the soft-shell crab. Currently, we are gearing up for Christmas, a visit from Nana and Poppy, are completely confounded by the idea of Sansa Cows, and obsessed with the movie Curious George 2. We see it at least 9 times per week. Their favorite book is In a People House, and their favorite music for bedtime is Death Cab for Cutie. I know – try explaining that to someone who doesn’t know.

TwinXY: 37inches tall, still 34 lbs, but is about to get his first pair of size 10 shoes. Yikes. He is the size of a Chinese 4 year old. I am thinking about changing his name to Einstein, or maybe Newton. He can read more than 60 sight words, count to 20 in English, and 10 in Swedish. Loves to sing and play instruments. It is really too bad he dances like a gorilla. Somehow, he has decided that his best form of conflict resolution is head-butting (really hard and dangerous) so we are working hard to curb the behavior. He is a real snuggler and spends as much time on my lap as he does in time out. He repeats everything. 10 times. In time out today for hitting XX,

I say, “We don’t hit. Hitting is a No-No.”

He says “No-No?”

Me: “No. No.”

Him: “No-No hit face?”

Me: “No-No hit face.”

Him: “No-No hit cheek?”

Me: “No. No-No hit cheek.”

Him: “Tummy?”

Me: “No. No-No hit tummy.”

Him: “Head?”

Me: “No. No-No hit head.”

Him: Looks terribly defeated, and then lights up with a great idea: “Nose!” and makes a smacking motion to his own nose.

The “no hit, anytime, anywhere” lecture ensued.

TwinXX: She is a funny girl. A total actress and comedienne, she currently likes stomping around the house as a robot. She is not as eager to learn and show off as XY, but she is normally just a few steps behind him. She really enjoys learning new “big” words – just this week: peenchess (princess), he-ooo (hero), and sings through the entire O Holy Night with me. (in progress)

October 2012

Oh, how negligent I have been. We are 3 now and talking nonstop. Here are some faves:

Huggers – covers at bedtime

Ladypops – lollipops

Cat’s still say “now, now”

XY: “What’s a zert?” everyday before he starts his dinner. (What is for dessert?)

XX: After I took a trip to the US on my own: “No more long trips. Was too long. You can have a little trip. It’s OK.”

XX: after every sentence, very matter of fact, “I sink so”. As in, “Mine iPod is no juice, I sink so.”

Both can’t wait for “Hallowoon”. She wants to be a cat. He insisted on being a “curvy moon” (crescent). Lucky me and the 2 days spent hunched over the sewing machine.

XY: some strange food ideas. Recently requested “rice, chicken, and people” for dinner, and a few days later wanted a “hedgehog sandwich” for lunch. Guess he was bored with PB&J…

XY is counting to 50 (with minor help). XX is counting backwards from 10… really fast. Not sure why it is always a race?

Everything is a contest. Someone has to “win” at everything. They both crumble in tears – I don’t want to be second!

USA trip November-January 2102/2013:

Driving through the Kansas country: XY: “Sumfing very stwange is going on… it’s sumfing very stwange…” (for miles). When he finally articulated what it was, “All the buildings are gone. Everybody left.”

Hay bales: “telloines” – I have no idea where this came from. Now when we eat Wheatabix, we also eat telloines. I checked – it isn’t Swedish, so it must be Plinkish.

February 2013

XY: when you do something to make him cry: “You making my drops come out” which makes him 100x sadder and me giggle 100x harder.

XX: You Can get rid of those baby spoons now Momma, I not a baby, I’M a big girl ’cause I’m THREE.

XX: built a very realistic campfire on the beach with rock “fire-circle”. When I asked where she learned about campfires? “My brain just told me.”

3 Responses to “Anthology”

and yes, boolala is a keeper forever. Ours are: Scott’s was he wanted to build a log Kevin (he had no concept of a cabin but he had a boy in his class named Kevin!); Keith had jage for garage, battio for battery and bangdang for bandaid; Maegan’s best was da wa ahah for I want another one